The redesign of Walworth Road transformed it from a traffic dominated thoroughfare into a vibrant place for local people.

Walworth Road in Southwark faced problems with road safety. As a distributor route with heavy traffic and a local high street with lots of shoppers things had become unbalanced:

The street space was largely allocated to motor vehicles, including designated bus lanes.

The footways were relatively narrow, and long stretches of guard rails stopped pedestrian movement both along and across the street.

The guard railing also made servicing difficult for the many retail and other commercial properties which fronted the street.

Despite many conventional traffic engineering and road safety measures, the collision record gave considerable cause for concern.

Walworth Road became one of 10 Department for Transport ‘mixed priority route’ demonstration projects. It was the most complex because of its heavy traffic and the high importance of making it an attractive place for shopping, business and the local community.